The Washington Condos at 35 Underhill
It's April 1. No new marketing push. No new advertising online or in print. No model unit available. No open house. No owner's brunch.Letters were sent out from the sponsor's attorney targeting May and June closings. Throw those out the window.
On the brighter side of things, there are hints of new businesses opening up for the glut of new residents on Washington Avenue.
23 Comments:
is there anyone else out there who is as frustrated with aguayo and huebner as i am? obviously, the phrase "customer service" means nothing to this company. how many times have i heard that a model apartment will be for view soon, or that people have actually been shown through the building, or that the move in date is really happening soon — although none of this has been told to me, since A&H only returns my calls after we call them repeatedly, first. despite having plunked down a sizable chunk of money for a down payment over 18 months ago, i have had like zippo contact with A&H.
i am so over the washington. i hate it already, and i have not even moved yet. thanks A&H. your customer service is so stellar, i will be sure to recommend you to all of my friends. those, that is, who needed one more reason to leave new york.
I am with you 100%. THis has beena very frustrating experience for me. I will never buy a new construction again, and I will NEVER work with Aguayo again. I will definately spread the word about not working with AH. I feel they have been very deceptive, unapologetic and completely non-communicative. Are you moving in to the building or are you an investor?
I'm also frustrated with A&H, as I feel they were very misleading with respect to closing dates. We purchased nearly a year ago.
I spoke with the Sponsor's attorney last month. He told me they expect to begin their marketing push this month (he did not promise an April 1 date), which is to coincide with completion of the model unit. As for May and June closings, they only have to provide 30 days notice, so the estimate in their letter may not be too far off. I'm not sure what the status of Building B is right now (I've been told it's about a month or two ahead of Building A, where we purchased).
Has anyone visited the units within the last 2 weeks or so?
what are the new businesses opening up?
on dailyheights.com, go to the prospect heights bboard..they have a few new places going up on washington, like a cafe and some talk of a gourmet grocery...
it's unfortunate, but i think this lack of news from the marketing firm ie a/h is to be expected. but i only wish they were an exception to the rule but it appears not.
has anyone ordered an appraisal or heard anything about the parking spots?
I was there 2 times in the last week. They are making progress in the B building. People are always working. I also stopped A&H and let her know that alot of people are frustrated and want some answers. My unit in the B building is 2-3 wks away from being done, but we have no idea about the city papers and such. They are coming along on the common spaces. They will look very classy when they are done. Does anyone have a duplex in the A building on Washington, on the 5th floor? If so, i have some bad news. The second floor has 6'6" ceilings. It is not pretty. The rest of the building looks great. The owner of A&H said that she would have some answers for us this week, so i will get back to LT and maybe he wil post it.
Baldman
spoke to A@H-----the sponsor is holding off for a permanent certificate of occupancy---meaning who knows when this will close
this developer is such a newby. has no clue as to how to properly promote his building. why can't he get a temporary c of o and sell out the units? his way of thinking (if he is) boggles the mind.
7:42, any truth to this tidbit? i think we should all be worried at this point..
offering plan expires june 2006. i for one can't wait for this date to come so i can back out. what with the large number of condos in the area coming to market soon, the sponsor better get his rear in gear to hurry up.
else he may have a lot of unhappy buyers who may back out.
look at the interest rates, folks! they haven't been this high since 2002! what is the sponsor thinking?
many ppl have been waiting for an opening like this- a chance to get out of contract.
from my limited experience, the permanent c of o comes 6 to 12 months after people have moved in. that means this building wont have anyone in it till next year earliest. i wouldn't doubt that the developer IS hoping that people back out. from what i heard through the grapevine, he realizes now that his original prices are way too low. i bought my unit for about 470 a foot. that's a joke now. i'll never pull out. i know that the developer is building the new building on Bergen (next to the public school, near vanderbilt) and there will be no way that he is going to pre sell the units. think he learned his lesson and now is trying to undo his screw-ups. thus, the lack of marketing for the remaining units in the past few months.
RE Anon 11:46 and in a follow-up to my last comment, I think that the more condos in the area is a good thing. that's how the neighborhood will become more viable and marketable from a real estate point of view. if it stays with empty lots, what's the desirability?
what's your source for the developer realizing his prices were way too low? imo, the washington was the pioneer in that northern washington ave area in terms of condos. it broke ground for all these other developers to have the balls to do condos there. he had to sell them at those prices, else no one would've purchased them.
please join the yahoo group if you're a buyer in contract.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thewashingtoncondo/?yguid=75830883
Itjbukem, I agree with you on why the prices were originally low. but at this point two years later, the developer is most likely (being greedy and all) regretting the pre-sale of the units considering he probably spent more than he expected on the building than planned; plus, the rise in values in the neighborhood which was ironically influenced by the construction of the Washington. This is my guess.
I can't give you my sources, but I'm not making anything up.
if it's true that one can get out of the contract in June, i wouldn't doubt that the developer is waiting for the date when he can have his attorney send out letters to buyers offering them this.
until we hear definitively from some respectable source, this is, and will remain, an unsubstantiated rumour. and since a/h makes no attempt at quelling rumours nor giving out accurate information, i fear that the comments on this site will continue to be an unvalidated and rampant source of rumour-mongering.
given the current market zeitgeist, i don't think isaac fischman, the developer, dba 630 realty llc, would resort to such dire tactics.
aside from the rising interest rate environment, current supply and future pipeline, mainstream media and nonmainstream media attention would not benefit either the developer nor marketer.
if such rumours were true, how to explain the recent letter from the sponsor's attorney stating targeted closing dates of may?
hope you're right
I think it's hilarious that you think A&H should give a crap about this blog or care to post responses to the ludicrous claims the 3 people post trying to slander A&H. I have been in constant contact with A&H. It's tough to understand I guess the hold that a developer has or the demands that he may make on a firm, I can't stand this amateur developer but A&H is defenitly not to blame. Sorry to rant, but I know they are just as upset. BTW the lobby's look dope!
suggest we all hang in there and show the sponsor that we are staying for a closing---if he screws around then block him when he applies for another building permit....
peggy has told me herself that ppl from her brokerage read this and other blogs. it's not as far-fetched as you think.
any broker worth his/her salt would do well to keep up with the 'word on the street'
BTW the lobby's look dope!
What does that mean?
A friend forwarded this to me today, I told her we just signed the contract on one of the units. This definitely has me concerned, to say the least...we were in the building this week (a) and yep, people were working hard, and our apt. was near-complete. The space on tghe first floor though has a way to go, as does the courtyard. They told us to expect a mid-summer closing date (June-ish) so I hope this is true...but we do have to sell our apt. anyway, so we have that to busy ourselves with...
my a&h broker saw that i went to an open house, asked how come i didn't have any faith that 35 under would be ready, and then in the next sentence, said, but there are those firehouse condos, so you might want to check those out..
!!! talk about mixed signals?!?
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